We recently hosted our daughter 3rd birthday in our little backyard. What little girl doesn’t love ponies so this was her theme for this year’s get together; it also happened to be the same day as the Kentucky Derby.

The afternoon started with pony rides (they brought a donkey and some bunnies too!), followed by our annual duck race at the little lake near our house. After that a Pony Fairy hide some tiny horses in our backyard for all the kids to find. All the kids received a stick pony that my mom and I spent several hours making leading up to the party, we were very happy with how they turned out and the kiddos seemed to love them and will now have a handmade toy to bring home and hopefully play with for many years.

Dinner consisted of barbecue that included, potatoes salad, coleslaw, corn muffins, watermelon, sausage and a bourbon based pork loin for the adults in honor of the Kentucky Derby. We also drew numbers to cheer for the race and the winner received a trophy and a lottery ticket.

The make your own “Trail Mix” station was a hit, along with the lemonade stand and our dessert bar consisted of a pink raspberry cake with pink buttercream icing; chocolate, lemon and vanilla cupcakes, carrot cake in a jar, apple pie pops and some pony sugar cookies sporting a number 3 saddle.